This invention relates generally to telephone testing devices, and has particular reference to novel test apparatus for enabling a phone company customer who owns his own equipment to determine, in the event of trouble, whether the cause of the trouble is in his equipment or is in the service provided by the phone company.
Heretofore, the telephone equipment in a customer's home has usually been the property of the phone company and therefore when something has gone wrong with the service, the company has had the sole responsibility for making repairs. At the present time, for a number of reasons, the trend is strongly toward the customer owning the telephone equipment that is in his home. This creates a problem for the customer because if there is trouble with his service he presently has no way of knowing whether the cause of the trouble is in his equipment or that of the phone company.
If the trouble that occurs is in phone company equipment, it is the company's responsibility to repair it. However, if a company repairman is called to a customer's home to locate the source of the trouble and finds it in the customer's equipment, not only is the repairman not obligated to repair the equipment but the customer will be charged a substantial fee for the service call. There exists a need, therefore, for an apparatus that can be used by the customer himself when trouble occurs to determine in a straightforward, uncomplicated way whether the source of the trouble is in his own equipment or that of the phone company.
The applicant is not aware of any pertinent prior art, probably because customer ownership of telephone equipment is a relatively new development. A preliminary search was undertaken prior to filing the present application and this search developed U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,627,932; 3,711,661 and 4,356,353. These three patents are not believed to be pertinent to the test apparatus disclosed herein.